Building A House In Issan

[khunandy]

Building a house at Phu Pha Man, Khon Kaen. 2006/7

When I first went to my wife’s village about 3 years ago we went around to her uncles house and had a meal out the back verandah of his house and the view with the sunset was absolutely beautiful, looking out over the rice paddies and palm trees in late September, everything was looking at its best. I asked myself then if I could see myself living in a beautiful but remote part of Thailand. To tell the truth I couldn't see it.

The next day we were walking along the same road past some paddies at the same time of the day and I looked over my shoulder and caught the sunset again just dropping over this purple mountain range and jokingly said to the wife that if I could have that view every day I could possible live in her village.

Fast forward 12 months and we bought that same land outside of which I had made that off the cuff comment; we bought 3 rai for 290,000 baht off an elderly lady who had had enough of the farming life, enough to part with ten percent of her land anyway. Some villagers thought we paid too much, some thought we had ripped the old girl off, I stayed out of it.

The hassle started when I insisted to my wife that we have the deeds to the land (no sweetheart deals), it ended up that the land was mortgaged and they didn’t want to pay out the loan (50000 Baht). The sale was off, then on again a few times until we went to the bank with the lady and sorted it out. We paid off the loan and then settled on 240,000 baht for the land.

We had it re-surveyed and re-pegged, my mother in laws house and land butted against one short boundary so we had that included in the land title as well.

Next was the earthmoving, we had to build up a 2000 sqm area to a depth of 2 metres, luckily there are good websites you can delve into to get an idea of what is a reasonable price to pay, I am not the type to screw everyone down to the last cent and somehow that philosophy takes care of me because whenever I have paid a little too much I have had no problem getting a little extra value for the money..as long as everyone is happy, including myself.

To save costs on buying fill we decided to have a big pond dug and use the fill for the building site. It worked out ok but I will still have to back fill some areas as the earthworks also made some old paddy land swampy with no natural outlet of excess water. The fill was compacted at one metre height and then again at two metres height but we didnt see this and suspect the compaction was nothing more than driving the earthmoving digger over it for a while.

We managed this just as the wet season was starting and it was a regular feature of my phone calls home “How is my pond honey”…”Oh your pond very full now, look beautiful”

I started to draw up some house plans at this time with various pirated 3D programs, that was fun. I ended up with a plan I really liked (and still do) but in my ignorance of Thai building methods when I showed my plans to a couple of builders they just didn’t “get it”. I had a mongrel plan as far as the builders were concerned. The trouble was that I was thinking in Australian material and specs. It made it hard that I work a 28 day rotation and just couldn’t get any builders (or wife) excited about my plans. The eventual quote I got was too much ( I think they came up with a figure then simply doubled it) and I scrapped the idea after admitting defeat.

When I was at work one swing I came across this website http://www.dpt.go.th/04work/house_model/doc_house.html for Thai house plans and really liked No 30 and No 29, to cut a long story short when I got back to Thailand the wife and the builder were jumping out of their pants (well not really) but they were pleased that I had joined the land of reality and practicality. “This house I can build for you very good”..fair enough then lets get on with it.

The Shaman was consulted for a good starting date and I had my wife translate as much of the plans as she could to me. We made some changes to incorporate a big “retreat” for ourselves, a farang kitchen, plenty of room for guests and also plenty of room downstairs for Thai activities. I am not being silly or patronising but I am sure most reading this will know that we farangs sometimes just need some time out.

I will just mention something about these plans. So many things are taken care of , timber flooring over the top story concrete, insulation bats in the ceilings, tiling, painting inside and out, so many choices of doors, windows and alterations to suit individual tastes etc. Just about every time I mentioned to the wife some important thing she would consult the plan and usually the answer was “have already”. I asked the builder “How about putting in some of those recessed ceiling?”.. No problem, no extra charge and just today I asked my wife to tell him I wanted rain catchment from the three roofs to be plumbed to one area for a future water reservoir/tank. “He said no problem he will do, but we buy the pipe OK”.

Ignorance offers some nice surprises sometimes, just when I was thinking about floor coverings last time I was on the site the builder came with timber floor samples for the bedrooms and common areas, I had no idea that this was also in the plans and therefore in the original costs. Good quality as well, far superior to the flooring I just had installed in my house in Australia.

The builder recommended that we have piles driven into the ground underneath where we would be making the footings for the foundations. I was a bit hesitant as this hadn’t been mentioned before and the extra cost was about 150,000 Baht. I then consulted a builder friend from Australia who was coming up for a holiday later that year and he pretty well convinced me that “it wouldn’t hurt”. I decided to go for it as I recalled again that I didn’t have a clue about building in Thailand but due to the fact that it is old paddy land with a couple of metres of fill, indeed it “wouldn’t hurt”.

There were 32 of these 5 metre reinforced concrete piles driven into the earth and then they were punched in an extra metre, the video my wife took showed them sinking into butter for the first couple of metres then requiring a good lot of thumping to get them to the required depth. One cubic metre holes were then dug until the top of the pile was exposed, then the steelwork started for the footings, I felt better knowing that each of those footings had 5 metres of concrete pile underneath them.

We had a relative employed by the builder to be the onsite caretaker and part of his job is to check all the material used in the construction to make sure we are not ripped off with any low quality materials.

So far it has been ok and now I am proud to say the wife has also developed into an excellent Quantity and Quality Surveyor.

The Shaman was then called to do his ceremony and prayers over the foundations before we could raise the first column , this was quite brief and consisted of throwing some coins in each footing and letting him go about his business. The important part was the date but I have no knowledge of how these dates are selected.

Work progressed rapidly then nothing for a month while the rice harvest was on. Unfortunately I somehow lost the photos of the columns and beams photos in cyberspace and have to pick up the visual content here after the concrete skeleton was finished

With the columns and beams in place the bricklayers started to fill in the room walls and brick around the columns (why do they do this?) I like the thicker column it gives and maybe it is also part of strengthening.

I received this photo the other day and I can now get some sort of perception of depth and a hint of how it may look when finished. The original plans did not have a room at the lower left but the builder did it for no extra charge after feeling guilty about the one month of no production (with a bit of prompting from the wife). The steel work on the back roof has been completed since these photos were taken.I have been told and when I get to see it all first hand next week the three roofs should be tiled.

Until then

Andy

[londonthai]

looks like you were lucky with finding a good builder - rare to hear in thailand.

Piles are essential for the building - up to 6 meters

[khunandy]

looks like you were lucky with finding a good builder - rare to hear in thailand.

Piles are essential for the building - up to 6 meters

londonthai,

Yes I am starting to think that I am lucky, sorry about the layout it didnt turn out as I expected with the photos interspersing the story . Ahh well, still learning.

In a way I think I am better off not being there every day to lean on him, everything is sorted out with my wife being the "middle man" with daily phonecalls to me checking that she is doing the right thing. It seems to be a good formula.

Andy

[WilliamCave]

Nice design. You are lucky with your wife looking after your interests, I have heard many horror stories about the Thai wife looking after the locals interests rather than the husbands. Quality control is almost non existant in thailand when building a house. I had my share of problems. When I build on to my house the usual reply from the thais was this is thailand it is different here(F,,,garbage) since then my wife sees what I am talking about when she came to my home country and seen that I do know what I am talking about, and that most of what the thai builders were saying was bullshit...

your lucky,,,good luck

[lowerlakeside]

very nice design.if you dont mind my asking , what did it cost to build(less land costs)

[khunandy]

very nice design.if you dont mind my asking , what did it cost to build(less land costs)

No problem telling you costs,

The original book price or recommended price by the government in 2002 was about 1,850,000 these recommended prices are on the websites. Our builder quoted 2,000,000 due to the increased prices of steel, transport etc, then another 150,00 for the 32 subterranian piles.

I have had the back "wing" enlarged quite a bit and that is now 14 m x 4m where before it was about 9m x 3.5 m to encorperate an office,a private balcony and a larger ensuite. This required some engineering specs to be changed etc. that was another 150,000.

I should probably mention at this stage that the house is perfectly adequate without any changes to the plan, he has done quite a bit of extras for free but in real life has probably padded out the other alterations from the design like the piles and the enlargement of the main suite. I know I would.

Anyway to answer your question it has come in so far at 2.3 million. I still have some more costs of course, things you sort of put in the back of your mind but they will all add up. Front wall, gates, perimeter wall, landscaping etc etc.

I am reluctant to make a spreadsheet on the costs..might sort of spoil the experience. ha ha. I have a budget and it is coming in well within it so I am happy.

I could have had a very comfortable house for a lot less and would have been just as happy, the thing is that when you start to look at value for money some weird side of you takes over and wants more value for more money. Very strange.

As I have mentioned before I feel lucky that this guy has also asked if he can show prospective clients this house when it is finished. He is a nice guy though and has certainly been very patient and accomodating with me.

Andy

[khunandy]

Nice design. You are lucky with your wife looking after your interests, I have heard many horror stories about the Thai wife looking after the locals interests rather than the husbands. Quality control is almost non existant in thailand when building a house. I had my share of problems. When I build on to my house the usual reply from the thais was this is thailand it is different here(F,,,garbage) since then my wife sees what I am talking about when she came to my home country and seen that I do know what I am talking about, and that most of what the thai builders were saying was bullshit...

your lucky,,,good luck

Hi WC,

Yes my wife is a pretty smart cookie and has a good blend of firmness and friendliness, she seems to get what she wants (out of me anyway ). I am sure there would have been a whole lot more problems if I hadnt been able to talk with her each day while this is going on.

For instance last night she told me that today they are starting to build a 6 metre water tower. This has never been discussed before and isn't needed so I would have come home to a Stalag watchtower at the front gate if not for daily communication.

This type of house is a first for the village, so input from family and friends has been minimal apart from things like it was considered to be inviting bad luck to have a stairway going upwards from right to left. My first response of course would be "dont be silly" but who cares really. Fine put it the other way..old people happy.

Once again, I reckon these house plans are the go, the specs are there, the standard is up to date and indisputable, the builder knows that if he follows the plan everything will be ok with me. I am expecting to have some <deleted> moments but we will see.

Andy

[jumbo]

very nice design.if you dont mind my asking , what did it cost to build(less land costs)

No problem telling you costs,

The original book price or recommended price by the government in 2002 was about 1,850,000 these recommended prices are on the websites. Our builder quoted 2,000,000 due to the increased prices of steel, transport etc, then another 150,00 for the 32 subterranian piles.

I have had the back "wing" enlarged quite a bit and that is now 14 m x 4m where before it was about 9m x 3.5 m to encorperate an office,a private balcony and a larger ensuite. This required some engineering specs to be changed etc. that was another 150,000.

I should probably mention at this stage that the house is perfectly adequate without any changes to the plan, he has done quite a bit of extras for free but in real life has probably padded out the other alterations from the design like the piles and the enlargement of the main suite. I know I would.

Anyway to answer your question it has come in so far at 2.3 million. I still have some more costs of course, things you sort of put in the back of your mind but they will all add up. Front wall, gates, perimeter wall, landscaping etc etc.

I am reluctant to make a spreadsheet on the costs..might sort of spoil the experience. ha ha. I have a budget and it is coming in well within it so I am happy.

I could have had a very comfortable house for a lot less and would have been just as happy, the thing is that when you start to look at value for money some weird side of you takes over and wants more value for more money. Very strange.

As I have mentioned before I feel lucky that this guy has also asked if he can show prospective clients this house when it is finished. He is a nice guy though and has certainly been very patient and accomodating with me.

Andy

How much does it come to per m2??? Including kitchen and bathrooms??

I always thought that piles needed to go down to 'hardrock' which is about 10-15 meter deep in Thailand ??

Do the columns shows on the inside, like in the corners....I hate that

J

Edited January 28, 2007 by jumbo

[khunandy]

How much does it come to per m2??? Including kitchen and bathrooms??

I always thought that piles needed to go down to 'hardrock' which is about 10-15 meter deep in Thailand ??

Do the columns shows on the inside, like in the corners....I hate that

J

J

Here is the breakdown

Upstairs:

Bedrooms x 3, Kitchen, Loungroom,bathrooms x 2, Office

Total 118 sqm

Alfresco courtyard and private balcony

Total 110 sqm

Downstairs:

bedroom x 1, loungeroom x 1, Kitchen (thai) x 1, bathroom x 1, laundry x 1, storage room x 1

Total 80.5 sqm

Common/eating/whatever area

Total 75 sqm

Garage

36 sqm

I will leave you to do the maths as some people may include the central courtyard and balconies , others may not but in light of materials used and floor coverings, usage etc etc I probably would.

Are the columns visible in the corners? Yes I imagine so but I am used to this and while a little visually irritating it is part and parcel of cheap efficient Thai construction methods. I did toss up about double brick walls and eliminating the "column in the corner" business but couldnt justify the extra hassle or cost.

Pile driving down to 15 metres or bedrock? It would have to be a bl**dy big pile driver or expensive drill rig to allow this, I would say that 6 metres is enough for the weight of the building. Multi story developments I guess may have to hit rock but I seriously doubt that would be the case in my house.

Andy

[chownah]

Jumbo,

Piles get their support in two ways; from being driven until firm earth (could be rock) is supporting them from below and/or from friction between the sides of the piles and the earth they contact. Some piles rely on one or the other but many piles rely on a combination of both.

Chownah

[Swelters]

You have a fine view and your writeup is a wonderful resource.

You won't need piles in most upcountry places, but you have to know the local soil conditions to make the decision to go with usual shallow footings for a house like this. Seems that you did the smart thing here because your builder knew the local soils. It might have cost you just as much to hand excavate for footings down to the bearing level.

You would always need piles for this kind of house in and around Bangkok because you wont find any good bearing in the upper 17 meters.

Swelters

[chownah]

A good point from Swelters that there are two options and you must choose depending on the soil conditions where you are building....in fact I've seen the plans for Khunandy's house and it gives the details needed for either piles or spread footers so whichever you decide you need the drawings and specs are there.

Chownah

[jumbo]

Thanks Andy for the reply on the sqm price, seems to me and looking at other sqm prices OK

somewhere between 5 to 6K per sqm.

Swelters, Chownah

I understand what you mean, I live in Bangkok, that's why I was talking this depth with the piles

I didn't think about other soilconditions......

J

[johnnyk]

Andy,

thanks for taking the time to make a super post with lots of good info and insight. The pics of your land look lovely, especially the colours of the grey-blue mountain and the vivid green of the paddies.

Looks like it is all going well.

I wish you and your wife many happy days in your home.

[LoveDaBlues]

A lot of Thai home builders have an engineer come in and give recommendation on the number of pilings, depth, etc. depending on the soil conditions they find.

[mossss]

Building a house at Phu Pha Man, Khon Kaen. 2006/7

Hi Andy, great write up and many parallels with my own experience to date. I also attempted having plans drawn up by an architect based on my own basic plans, it cost me 50k and I ended up with a huge out-of-budget quote. Hence my relief when I saw this plan on the government website. I have shown this website to several developers and builders and all have been blown away by the common sense and good value of the whole concept.

Looks like my version of the same house (I am also going for the balcony at the back of the building and have switched some rooms and bathrooms around), is going to begin construction in the next couple of months or so. Best quote I have been able to get with anyone I feel I can trust is about 2.5 with less additions than you have got and without the piling, But, even though this may sound like I'm being ripped off compared to your pricing, I actually think that you are just getting an amazing deal. I know that steel prices particularly have gone up considerably since 2002 when the original plans and estimates were drawn up, so a 25% increase in 5 years does not seem impossible. The other thing I remind myself of is that I am in Krabi and everything froma kilo of rice to a ton of sand does cost more, I don't really know why, but it is a fact of life to living down here. So all in all, if it comes out to budget and I'm happy with the standard, then I will feel that I have a great value for money house. (know what you mean about wanting more value for more money though).

One thing I am told is not in the plans, is any sort of termite control measures, like spraying the foundations before beginning construction, did you get anything like this done? Maybe it's not such a problem up there, but I'm actually living in a rented house that we've recently discovered is having the floorboards eaten from underneath us.

Again, great to see all the pictures, and I just hope that mine goes as smoothly as yours seems to. Good luck getting home and seeing it all (and of course posting up some new progress reports and pics).

richard

[khunandy]

Andy,

thanks for taking the time to make a super post with lots of good info and insight. The pics of your land look lovely, especially the colours of the grey-blue mountain and the vivid green of the paddies.

Looks like it is all going well.

I wish you and your wife many happy days in your home.

Johnny K,

Thanks mate, yes, it is a beautiful part of the world and I will be back there on Thursday..can't wait!

Andy

[NovaBlue05]

Regarding the columns, all Thai plans I have seen show a column spacing of 3-3.5m for living areas. Is this a Thai force of habit or does it have something to do with nominal dimensions of other building components/precast panels? I might be interested in 5...5.5m wide in certain situations to avoid having a column in the middle of a larger room. I would suspect that it would involve a larger beam and\or column for the increased span?

[khunandy]

Regarding the columns, all Thai plans I have seen show a column spacing of 3-3.5m for living areas. Is this a Thai force of habit or does it have something to do with nominal dimensions of other building components/precast panels? I might be interested in 5...5.5m wide in certain situations to avoid having a column in the middle of a larger room. I would suspect that it would involve a larger beam and\or column for the increased span?

Hi Nova,

Some of my columns are 4 - 5 metres apart, all to do with engineering specs.

Nothing was prefab on my house but down the road there are a couple of Issan style country homes getting built using quite a bit of prefab (masonary) stuff and they seem to be sticking with the 3-3.5 metre rule. I have read a fair few uncomplimentry comments about prefab colums and the such but the Grandparents new (25 years old) house is still solid and has survived a few floods over the years.

I reckon the 3 - 3.5 metre rule is more to do with cost effectiveness, and those colums come in handy for hanging stuff on such as multi power boards with 5 double adaptors plugged in

Andy

[khunandy]

Building a house at Phu Pha Man, Khon Kaen. 2006/7

Hi Andy, great write up and many parallels with my own experience to date. I also attempted having plans drawn up by an architect based on my own basic plans, it cost me 50k and I ended up with a huge out-of-budget quote. Hence my relief when I saw this plan on the government website. I have shown this website to several developers and builders and all have been blown away by the common sense and good value of the whole concept.

Looks like my version of the same house (I am also going for the balcony at the back of the building and have switched some rooms and bathrooms around), is going to begin construction in the next couple of months or so. Best quote I have been able to get with anyone I feel I can trust is about 2.5 with less additions than you have got and without the piling, But, even though this may sound like I'm being ripped off compared to your pricing, I actually think that you are just getting an amazing deal. I know that steel prices particularly have gone up considerably since 2002 when the original plans and estimates were drawn up, so a 25% increase in 5 years does not seem impossible. The other thing I remind myself of is that I am in Krabi and everything froma kilo of rice to a ton of sand does cost more, I don't really know why, but it is a fact of life to living down here. So all in all, if it comes out to budget and I'm happy with the standard, then I will feel that I have a great value for money house. (know what you mean about wanting more value for more money though).

One thing I am told is not in the plans, is any sort of termite control measures, like spraying the foundations before beginning construction, did you get anything like this done? Maybe it's not such a problem up there, but I'm actually living in a rented house that we've recently discovered is having the floorboards eaten from underneath us.

Again, great to see all the pictures, and I just hope that mine goes as smoothly as yours seems to. Good luck getting home and seeing it all (and of course posting up some new progress reports and pics).

richard

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the comments. regarding the price differences we have it is worth bearing in mind what you said, the labour is very cheap where I am and I think the markups from the builder are as well. Undoubtably my wife has played a big part in this as well, for instance when everyone took off for a month our second payment of 300,000 was due but there is no way my wife was handing it over until the pre-agreed stage was achieved, if he wanted the money faster he had to employ more workers to get that stage faster.

I asked to go easy on the guy thinking that it might sour the relationship but she was firm.Now he has asked her would she work for him with any future Farang clients. In the same capacity that she is doing now...translating, quality and quantity control. This builder cannot speak a word of English but knows he can communicate with me through my wife and it works well.

By the way, one of the best things I did was to put a folder together with English - Thai translations and photos relating to building/ construction. I will PM it to you if you like. Most of it was downloaded from "coolthaihouse". It was, and is, really helpful covering everything from rebar thickness, electrical work, roofing etc etc

Good luck with your house

Andy

Edited January 29, 2007 by khunandy

[lowerlakeside]

thanks for the info Andy..your posts are a great resource.My own house (i have yet to see other than a couple in progress photos) was just completed in Nong Bua Rawe(Chaiyapum).The inlaws did all the leg work for us,found our builder, negotiated price, etc. We will be there march 10 with my family and friends for our weding ceremony, and i will post pics when i get back.It came in at just over 1,200,000baht.Any one in the area stop on in...ill have a cold one waiting for you .

[khunandy]

thanks for the info Andy..your posts are a great resource.My own house (i have yet to see other than a couple in progress photos) was just completed in Nong Bua Rawe(Chaiyapum).The inlaws did all the leg work for us,found our builder, negotiated price, etc. We will be there march 10 with my family and friends for our weding ceremony, and i will post pics when i get back.It came in at just over 1,200,000baht.Any one in the area stop on in...ill have a cold one waiting for you .

Hey Mate,

The river behind my place is actually the nothern border of Chaiyapum. I wont be there in March unfortunately, not again after this trip until early April, if you are still around then we certainly can hook up for a soothing ale.

Good luck with your marriage in March. looking forward to the pics of the house and a couple of you cramped up cross- legged in your finery.

Andy

[chownah]

Khunandy,

Doesn't your house have some beams that are 6.8 metres measured center of column to center of column? That's what my plans show...or did your tweaking of the design somehow shorten those spans?

Chownah

[khunandy]

Khunandy,

Doesn't your house have some beams that are 6.8 metres measured center of column to center of column? That's what my plans show...or did your tweaking of the design somehow shorten those spans?

Chownah

Hi Chownah,

Yes mate you are right, I dont have my working plans with me at work and was too lazy/tired to check it properly out but you are right.

While I am at it you have been very helpful in the times I have posted in the past, thanks for that, your input has always been appreciated and helpful.

Andy

[DavidOxon]

Hi . . . great post, we were looking at that model as a basis too.

Do you have any more completed/uptodate pics yet?

Cheers

David

[Crossy]

Hi . . . great post, we were looking at that model as a basis too.

Hmmm, No.30 seems a popular starting point, we're building one too.

Done some changes to the plans, like lose one of the bathrooms and have a Farang kitchen upstairs next to the lounge and we've deleted the front stairs (the internal stairs offer better security) not sure about ghost access / egress though, I assume the missus knows best

Wifey wants an Ayutthaya style double pitch roof, so we've had to get an architect to re-draw everything structural, but those free plans are a fantastic source of ideas.

Lets have some piccies of completed structures

[khunandy]

Building a house at Phu Pha Man, Khon Kaen. 2006/7

When I first went to my wife’s village about 3 years ago we went around to her uncles house and had a meal out the back verandah of his house and the view with the sunset was absolutely beautiful, looking out over the rice paddies and palm trees in late September, everything was looking at its best. I asked myself then if I could see myself living in a beautiful but remote part of Thailand. To tell the truth I couldn't see it.

The next day we were walking along the same road past some paddies at the same time of the day and I looked over my shoulder and caught the sunset again just dropping over this purple mountain range and jokingly said to the wife that if I could have that view every day I could possible live in her village.

Fast forward 12 months and we bought that same land outside of which I had made that off the cuff comment; we bought 3 rai for 290,000 baht off an elderly lady who had had enough of the farming life, enough to part with ten percent of her land anyway. Some villagers thought we paid too much, some thought we had ripped the old girl off, I stayed out of it.

The hassle started when I insisted to my wife that we have the deeds to the land (no sweetheart deals), it ended up that the land was mortgaged and they didn’t want to pay out the loan (50000 Baht). The sale was off, then on again a few times until we went to the bank with the lady and sorted it out. We paid off the loan and then settled on 240,000 baht for the land.

We had it re-surveyed and re-pegged, my mother in laws house and land butted against one short boundary so we had that included in the land title as well.

Next was the earthmoving, we had to build up a 2000 sqm area to a depth of 2 metres, luckily there are good websites you can delve into to get an idea of what is a reasonable price to pay, I am not the type to screw everyone down to the last cent and somehow that philosophy takes care of me because whenever I have paid a little too much I have had no problem getting a little extra value for the money..as long as everyone is happy, including myself.

To save costs on buying fill we decided to have a big pond dug and use the fill for the building site. It worked out ok but I will still have to back fill some areas as the earthworks also made some old paddy land swampy with no natural outlet of excess water. The fill was compacted at one metre height and then again at two metres height but we didnt see this and suspect the compaction was nothing more than driving the earthmoving digger over it for a while.

We managed this just as the wet season was starting and it was a regular feature of my phone calls home “How is my pond honey”…”Oh your pond very full now, look beautiful”

I started to draw up some house plans at this time with various pirated 3D programs, that was fun. I ended up with a plan I really liked (and still do) but in my ignorance of Thai building methods when I showed my plans to a couple of builders they just didn’t “get it”. I had a mongrel plan as far as the builders were concerned. The trouble was that I was thinking in Australian material and specs. It made it hard that I work a 28 day rotation and just couldn’t get any builders (or wife) excited about my plans. The eventual quote I got was too much ( I think they came up with a figure then simply doubled it) and I scrapped the idea after admitting defeat.

When I was at work one swing I came across this website http://www.dpt.go.th/04work/house_model/doc_house.html for Thai house plans and really liked No 30 and No 29, to cut a long story short when I got back to Thailand the wife and the builder were jumping out of their pants (well not really) but they were pleased that I had joined the land of reality and practicality. “This house I can build for you very good”..fair enough then lets get on with it.

The Shaman was consulted for a good starting date and I had my wife translate as much of the plans as she could to me. We made some changes to incorporate a big “retreat” for ourselves, a farang kitchen, plenty of room for guests and also plenty of room downstairs for Thai activities. I am not being silly or patronising but I am sure most reading this will know that we farangs sometimes just need some time out.

I will just mention something about these plans. So many things are taken care of , timber flooring over the top story concrete, insulation bats in the ceilings, tiling, painting inside and out, so many choices of doors, windows and alterations to suit individual tastes etc. Just about every time I mentioned to the wife some important thing she would consult the plan and usually the answer was “have already”. I asked the builder “How about putting in some of those recessed ceiling?”.. No problem, no extra charge and just today I asked my wife to tell him I wanted rain catchment from the three roofs to be plumbed to one area for a future water reservoir/tank. “He said no problem he will do, but we buy the pipe OK”.

Ignorance offers some nice surprises sometimes, just when I was thinking about floor coverings last time I was on the site the builder came with timber floor samples for the bedrooms and common areas, I had no idea that this was also in the plans and therefore in the original costs. Good quality as well, far superior to the flooring I just had installed in my house in Australia.

The builder recommended that we have piles driven into the ground underneath where we would be making the footings for the foundations. I was a bit hesitant as this hadn’t been mentioned before and the extra cost was about 150,000 Baht. I then consulted a builder friend from Australia who was coming up for a holiday later that year and he pretty well convinced me that “it wouldn’t hurt”. I decided to go for it as I recalled again that I didn’t have a clue about building in Thailand but due to the fact that it is old paddy land with a couple of metres of fill, indeed it “wouldn’t hurt”.

There were 32 of these 5 metre reinforced concrete piles driven into the earth and then they were punched in an extra metre, the video my wife took showed them sinking into butter for the first couple of metres then requiring a good lot of thumping to get them to the required depth. One cubic metre holes were then dug until the top of the pile was exposed, then the steelwork started for the footings, I felt better knowing that each of those footings had 5 metres of concrete pile underneath them.

We had a relative employed by the builder to be the onsite caretaker and part of his job is to check all the material used in the construction to make sure we are not ripped off with any low quality materials.

So far it has been ok and now I am proud to say the wife has also developed into an excellent Quantity and Quality Surveyor.

The Shaman was then called to do his ceremony and prayers over the foundations before we could raise the first column , this was quite brief and consisted of throwing some coins in each footing and letting him go about his business. The important part was the date but I have no knowledge of how these dates are selected.

Work progressed rapidly then nothing for a month while the rice harvest was on. Unfortunately I somehow lost the photos of the columns and beams photos in cyberspace and have to pick up the visual content here after the concrete skeleton was finished.

With the columns and beams in place the bricklayers started to fill in the room walls and brick around the columns (why do they do this?) I like the thicker column it gives and maybe it is also part of strengthening.

I received this photo the other day and I can now get some sort of perception of depth and a hint of how it may look when finished. The original plans did not have a room at the lower left but the builder did it for no extra charge after feeling guilty about the one month of no production (with a bit of prompting from the wife). The steel work on the back roof has been completed since these photos were taken.I have been told and when I get to see it all first hand next week the three roofs should be tiled.

Until then

Andy

Hi all.

Update time: Everything is going well I think. I managed to spend a week on site before going back to Perth for some business and was glad I did. No real problems but two windows were in the wrong place, one shouldn't have been there and one was too low to act as a servery out of the farang kitchen but all in all a very good job and those two little problems were seen before any rendering took place so no problem. Oh, we also settled on a different front stair design to keep everyone (including pee) happy.

About the water drilling: that has been dissapointing so far, the need for water has been paramount as the builder wanted to start the cement rendering of the brickwork and wants a reliable , constant water supply. So we brought in the drillers and the quotes varied a lot. Some were as cheap as 10K and somw were as high as 30K. This might seem like an easy decision but it isnt...10K has no guarentee, 30 K does...10K will settle for a certain water flow but doesn't care if it smells, 30K wants to drill through a 10 metre granite strata to get to the sweeter water.

We decide on 30K and try for sweet water, he turned up with a truck, on the back is mounted a vertical car diff along with all sorts of clutches, belts and pumps. He gets in position and goes for it for 50 odd hours. 30 metres of clay..20 metres of granite and 25 more metres of sand and we didn't find a good source. He was gutted and so were we. The best we could get was 15 litres a minute. In hindsight I should have asked him to leave the casing in the hole for future solar pump fitting but he pulled the casing during the night and packed up his truck...I havent seen him since

I really felt for this guy as I am involved in offshore drilling and had a good idea of what he was doing, the whole time a shirtless old man saty down in front of a campfire a watched..watched...watched..it was bloody freezing at night , they still worked through but he did accept the blanket my wife gave him

In the meantime the village head guy had the filters replaced on the village water supply so now we have a good volume source to carry on with the rendering. We will look at the bore situation later. I wanted the wife to give the water driller some money to cover the granite drilling at least (this needed a big onsite air compressor to activate the hammer drill) but she said "no, this is his job and we dont need people to know that we pay for something not done" OK then! But I think I will slip him at least the cost of the 200 litres of fuel (compressor) he used during the granite drilling.

So , I am here in Perth today, I will be back at the house on Monday and have been told that the three roofs are finished, the internal electrics have been routed and the rendering is well under way..more photos later

Regards

Andy

[TehanMarine]

Khun Andy,

You did well with your home -- Good job!

I appreciate you sharring your lessons learned; alot of folks get "burned" building homes in Thailand with the biggest mistake being not being around to make sure things are on track and to inspect materials. Some couples are actually not in the country when their house is built.

I (my wife) own a fair amount of land in Korat and will likely move back there and build in a few years. Fortunetly, my wife's uncle is a general housing contarctor, and my wife is a stickler on details having worked in related fields and as a business owner herself. However, we will be inticately involved in the whole process to include purchasing and/or importing most of the materials and probably working side-by-side at times with the crew on the site. I have found that by doing this and by offering small incentives at the end of the day (beer, food, etc...) thing pay off in spades. You gotta be careful with this though; it can back fire.

Regardless, based on your blog, when the time comes, I will post a running account of my experiance to include a comprehensive after-action report.

Thanks again for sharing your experiance & good luck in your new home!

[khunandy]

Hi . . . great post, we were looking at that model as a basis too.

Hmmm, No.30 seems a popular starting point, we're building one too.

Done some changes to the plans, like lose one of the bathrooms and have a Farang kitchen upstairs next to the lounge and we've deleted the front stairs (the internal stairs offer better security) not sure about ghost access / egress though, I assume the missus knows best

Wifey wants an Ayutthaya style double pitch roof, so we've had to get an architect to re-draw everything structural, but those free plans are a fantastic source of ideas.

Lets have some piccies of completed structures

Hi Crossy,

Isn't # 27 the same floor plan with a couple of slight differences but the same dimensions and foot print? Is # 27 an Ayutthaya roof?

I would have seriously given a lot of thought to having the roof from #27httpput onto my house plan #30 if I had my time again. I like the bigger area of the end gables and the double pitch. I like those two small balconies from the bedrooms as well.

://www.dpt.go.th/04work/house_model/detail/no27.html

Has your house been started yet? Any photos?

regards

Andy

Edited March 4, 2007 by khunandy

[NovaBlue05]

Is it generally cheaper to construct the upper floor on a house model such as this out of masonry and concrete versus wood? My first thought was that wood frame construction would be more lightweight and less labor intensive but figured that perhaps in Thailand, the cost of wood versus brick & cement ....and relatively cheap labor ...must make the latter more cost effective. I suppose that termites would still be a problem even if elevated 3 m off the ground